Premier League: Summer Champions Meet at the Bridge

Chelsea vs Crystal Palace

Premier League football returns to Stamford Bridge on Sunday when Club World Cup champions Chelsea take on Community Shield winners Crystal Palace.  

Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea are one of the genuine title contenders according to the pre-season Premier League 2025-26 betting odds and the way the Blues have operated during the summer, both on and off the pitch, gives their fans more reason to be optimistic than for some time. Maresca’s new-look side finished fourth last term, eight places above Oliver Glasner’s Eagles and they have kicked on in the summer. 

Chelsea headed to the USA more in hope than expectation but they ended up winning the Club World Cup with a stunning 3-0 victory over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain in the final. Then they returned, with just three weeks of a breather in between, to London where they picked up friendly victories over AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen.      

In the meantime, in between winning the FA Cup and the Community Shield, Crystal Palace have endured a difficult summer transfer window and there is still some uncertainty around which players will be at Selhurst Park at the end of August.   

 

Talking Points

Palace won’t be pleased to see Pedro  

Chelsea are set to unveil a host of new players for their Stamford Bridge debuts on Sunday, including the £52m signing Jamie Gittens, who arrived from Borussia Dortmund, and former Palmeiras striker Estêvão Willian who signed for a cool £29m. One of the biggest Premier League 2025-26 news of the early summer was Chelsea’s signing of João Pedro, a £60m capture from Brighton & Hove Albion and he was hugely impressive at the Club World Cup, scoring the Blues’ third against PSG after the excellent Cole Palmer had helped himself to an early brace.  

Former Manchester City academy star Liam Delap has joined his old mate Palmer in the team, but Palace fans will mark out Pedro as the man they really don’t want to succeed, in light of his connections with their M23 rivals Brighton. The 23-year-old Brazilian, who already has three caps for the Seleção, also scored in the 2-0 win over Leverkusen and the 4-1 victory over AC Milan, so he comes into his first league game as a Blue bang in form. Delap scored twice against I Rossoneri too so it will be interesting to see who Maresca fits into his starting XI on Sunday.       

 

Off pitch problems are tough on the Eagles

It has been an incredible four months for the faithful at Selhurst Park. The two months prior were pretty good as Glasner pulled the Eagles to safety, in some comfort, while they advanced steadily through the rounds of the FA Cup. Few outside Croydon expected anything other than a Manchester City victory in the cup final but a goal from Eberechi Eze gave Palace a win they thoroughly deserved, and a first major trophy in the club’s 119 year history. Then they followed it up by beating Liverpool in the Community Shield last week to become the first club to win that prize at their first attempt since 1975. 

But, between those two incredible days, there has been a period of frustration and some anxiety off the pitch. The FA Cup win earned the Eagles a Europa League place but over the summer they have demoted to the Europa Conference League due to a breach in ownership rules. John Textor, who owns a majority share at Selhurst Park is also the major shareholder at Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais, who were also in the Europa League, and, as the two clubs were barred from playing in the same competition, Palace took the hit. 

Meanwhile, there has been constant speculation around the future of Eze and centre back Marc Guéhi and, following the departure of Michael Olise to Bayern Munich last summer, the loss of either, or both, of these two would be a serious blow. Meanwhile, there have been just two arrivals at the club, goalkeeper Walter Benítez on a free transfer from PSV Eindhoven and full back Borna Sosa for £3m from Ajax.   

The off field problems don’t seem to have taken an effect on the pitch so far as the Eagles matched Liverpool for long periods last week as Ismaïla Sarr won a penalty and scored a beauty to give Palace two equalisers and a shot at penalties.   

 

History 

From 2018 Chelsea won 14 matches against Crystal Palace on the bounce, but last season both results ended at 1-1, Eze equalising in the Stamford Bridge clash after Nicolas Jackson had given the hosts a half-time lead. 

In terms of recent form the Blues have won their last six games, while Palace too have had a good summer season, winning three friendlies, drawing one and losing just one before their penalty shootout win over Liverpool last week. 

 

Betting Tip

At SBOTOP odds of 1.57 the Blues are strong favourites to win this London derby, while the draw is at 4.20 and Palace are out at 5.56 to pick up an unexpected three points. I expect Chelsea to keep on winning now that the serious business begins, well certainly on Sunday.

   

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